1) Technical Field
The subject invention relates to a laser enclosure for utilization during laser operations conducted on a workpiece that is manipulated between a workpiece mounting chamber and an active working chamber where the laser enclosure inhibits laser energy from escaping the laser enclosure during the laser operations.
2) Description of the Prior Art
Industrial lasers are well known in the art. Particularly, industrial lasers are utilized for drilling, cutting, or welding a workpiece. Due to demands common in industry, varying strength industrial lasers are employed to effectively accomplish such operations on the workpiece. During these operations, the varying strength industrial lasers emit varying intensities of laser energy that require proper containment in order to maintain a safe operating environment for industrial laser operators.
Conventional laser enclosures are similarly well known in the art and are often implemented to satisfy the requirement of properly containing the laser energy. Such laser enclosures typically include an active working chamber where the drilling, cutting, or welding operations are performed, and a workpiece mounting chamber that is mechanically protected from the laser energy emitted in the active working chamber during operation. Due to the safe operating environment maintained by the laser enclosure, the operator is free to mount the workpiece to the laser enclosure in the workpiece mounting chamber. It is recognized that such conventional laser enclosures generally inhibit laser energy from directly or indirectly escaping from the active working chamber to the workpiece mounting chamber of the laser enclosure during laser operations. As appreciated, this effect is known in the art as establishing a "laser light tight" environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,658,476 to Gullo et al. discloses a conventional laser enclosure that inhibits laser energy from escaping the laser enclosure during laser operations on a workpiece. Specifically, the '476 patent to Gullo et al. discloses a laser enclosure comprising a housing having an inner cavity and a section having an opening through which workpiece pass into and out of the inner cavity. The laser enclosure further includes a workpiece positioner rotatable about a horizontal axis, and sealing apparatus movably coupled to the section and to the workpiece positioner. The sealing apparatus includes sealing members and slide attachment devices for movably coupling the sealing members to the section. The primary deficiency therefore, is that in order to establish the "laser light tight" environment, the laser enclosure of the '476 patent to Gullo et al. involves many moving parts. Furthermore, these moving parts require significant mechanical manipulation, interaction, and locking in order to achieve the "laser light tight" environment. Overall, these deficiencies are critical because, as a workpiece is drilled, cut, or welded, shavings or other processing debris of the workpiece are violently dislodged from the workpiece and randomly dispersed throughout the active working chamber. Significantly, these shavings or other processing debris mechanically disrupt the many moving parts as required by the prior art and prevent the establishment of the "laser light tight" environment.
Due to the inefficiencies identified in such conventional laser enclosures, it is desirable to implement a laser enclosure that reduces the quantity of mechanically interacting and locking parts required to establish a "laser light tight" environment thereby developing a laser enclosure that is not susceptible to randomly dispersed processing debris that negatively impact the performance of the prior art laser enclosures.